The Dream Of Building Your Very Own Cigar Box Guitar

Our existence in the 21st Century has taken on a disposable quality that probably won’t be much admired by future historians. Look at us. Every time Apple trots out a new iWhatever, 50 million “old” iWhatevers get tossed out the window. Our jobs, our mortgages, our marriages, NBA contracts – it all gets torn up in the end, and we begin anew. Read more

Gear Vault is sad to report that noted guitar maker Travis Bean has gone to that great gig in the sky. He passed away at home July 10, 2011 after a prolonged battle with cancer. Bean is best known for the guitars that bear his name that featured some of the earliest solid aluminum necks and headstocks paired with exotic hardwood bodies. The instruments had a distinctive sound and were known for excellent intonation and lots of sustain. Bean, along with his business partners Marc McElwee and Gary Kramer, built guitars from 1974 to 1979 under the Travis Bean name, although Kramer left after 1975 to start his own Kramer Guitars company, which also Read more